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Thursday, June 11, 2015

Interview with dark fantasy author Auden Johnson

Today's special guest is dark fantasy author Auden Johnson. She's chatting about her newest novel, Chains of the Sciell.

During
her virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, Auden will be awarding a $30
Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a randomly drawn
winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To
increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and
enter there, too!

Bio:

Auden is a dark fantasy writer.
As a kid, she created her own books by folding several construction papers in
half and stapling them down the middle, adding her own illustrations. No matter
how hard she tried, she couldn’t get away from writing. She holds a B.A. in
English, a M.S. in Library and Information Science and she studied Creative
Writing in England. She is a Research Assistant for Aubey LLC and currently
lives in Brooklyn, NY- working towards her Masters in Publishing at NYU. Her
short stories, No Vacancy, Clipped Wings and Welcome to My World and her
novellas Visible Through Darkness and Shadows under the Light are now available
through Amazon. The Sciell was her first novel; Chains of the Sciell is her second..

Welcome,
Auden. Please tell us about your current release.

Chains
of the Sciell is Book 2 of the Merging Worlds Series. It
takes places 50 years after book one and focuses on the children readers were
introduced to in Book 1. These children are now adults with no memories.
Divine, Royal, Blae and Aliceanna don’t feel like they fit in anywhere. They
have powers but they don’t know where their abilities came from. An enemy, who
wants their power, kidnaps them and traps them in this hidden town called
Silhouette. They feel as if they’ve met each other before. They know they used
to live in that town. Divine, Royal, Blae and Aliceanna need these memories and
their powers to escape the mansion before the enemy takes everything from them.

Outside of the town, the world is changing.
Walls of Darkness have surrounded populated cities for years. These walls are
thicker now. They torture the mind of any human who gets too close. Darkness is
growing stronger. It infects animals and plants. In some cities across the
world, walking out of the house is a fight for survival against the Darkness
within and the one outside. Humans are beginning to realize otherworldly beings
exist.

What inspired you to write this book?

Chains
of the Sciell is actually the descendent of the first
“real” novel I ever wrote. For some reason, I couldn’t let it go so I kept
rewriting it. Over a hundred rewrites later, I exaggerated but it was a lot of
rewrites, it was beginning to look like something. Then, I wanted the story to
be a part of The Merging Worlds series. Chains of the Sciell evolved again as I
fit it with the first and last book in the series.

Excerpt from Chains of the Sciell:

Royal
dangled her feet into the warm water. She let the feeling ease all worries. She
closed her eyes.

“Imagine
your mind as a maze with many doors,” Kaige had said. “Behind each door is an
attic of a house. Your goal is to reach the basement.”

She
appeared at the mouth of the maze. She was inside her mind. The first time she
did this, it had taken a while to materialize her body as it actually appeared
instead of how she wanted it to look. Even now, her breasts and hips were on
the large side.

Her
Lifeblood didn’t reach for her. She called. It didn’t answer. Her power never
disobeyed her. It forget the sound of her voice. If It knew the Sciell was
calling, It wouldn’t ignore her.

The
air was toxic. The poison, it seemed, was supposed to affect their minds and it
did. Maybe not the way their captor wanted. It created a thick raging wind. She
had trouble seeing. This was her mind after all. She willed the wind to part.
It did so, reluctantly.

She
sensed Divine behind her physical body. His shadow covered hers. He wrapped his
arms around her neck, latching his mouth onto her skin. Royal controlled her
desire to peel off his skin. Their minds melded. She relaxed. She was no longer
Royal. He was no longer Divine. They were a different being who they hadn’t
bothered to name. This wasn’t just her mind anymore.

What
exciting story are you working on next?

I’m taking all my world building blog post
and putting them together in a book on Dark World Building- still trying to
figure out what that mean exactly. I’m also writing a short apocalyptic story
about a group of non-human misfits who return to their otherworldly home to
find it empty. I’m putting dragons in the story, something I’ve never done
before. It’s been a lot of fun. They aren’t called dragons in this
work-in-progress. They’re Sencil, energy beings who look like dragons when they
take on a physical form.

When did you first consider yourself a
writer?

Recently, which is strange. I’m still
reluctant to call myself a writer. I need to get over that. I spend most of my
time writing.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's
your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find
time to write?
I write full-time but I’m also a student at NYU getting my Masters in
Publishing. My day begins with making my social media rounds- using Tweetdeck
to schedule tweets, posting on Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. On Monday,
Wednesday and Friday, I post on my blog. If I have an assignment for class, I’d
work on that. Since I have a book I’d like to release in the next couple of
months, I do a bit of writing. I’m also into graphic design. If there’s a book
image I need to work on, I throw myself into that. Since I spend all day alone
inside, I like to unplug and work in the park by the lake now that it’s finally
warm outside.

What would you say is your interesting
writing quirk?
I’m particular about my pens. I’d spend far more time than necessary at Staples
picking the perfect pen. If the pen doesn’t feel right, then something feels
off when I’m writing story notes.

As a child, what did you want to be when
you grew up?

I started out wanting to be a vet, then a
doctor, then a lawyer. Being an author was always in the back of my mind, but
for some reason, I thought it would be boring. Being an author is so not
boring.

Anything additional you want to share
with the readers?

Don’t be afraid to be a little adventurous.
You never know what you like until you try it.

14 comments:

Mai T, I decided to be a writer only a couple of years ago. I wanted to be practical so I treated writing like a hobby. Then, about 3 years ago, I decided to try making a career out of it. I still have trouble saying I'm a writer.

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About Me

I'm a NH native and love New England. I love writing about the region, exploring it on foot, on my bicycle, and in my car. There are so many small communities and fun and interesting people in this area, that I could be here a lifetime and not do all it is I want to do. :)

I'm a moderator at The Writer's Chatroom that hosts live chats with guest authors on Sunday nights 7-9PM EST. Join the e-mail list to get notifications of upcoming guests, then stop in and join the conversation!